‘Certain politicians resorting to various gimmicks’

Those who fall sick when in remand become very healthy overnight to join protest walks, once they are granted bail, Law and Order and Southern Development Minister Sagala Ratnayaka said.

He was speaking in Parliament yesterday in response to a question raised by JVP MP Nalin Jayathissa during the round of questions for oral answers.

MP Jayathissa said the Financial Crime Investigation Division (FCID) was under Minister Sagala Rathnayaka. “When politicians are remanded they are admitted to the Prisons Hospital or to the Colombo National Hospital,” Jayathissa said.

“Is the FCID arresting only sick people? I think an FCID ward will have to be set up at the National Hospital”,” he said.

He said such politicians could die when they walk from Kandy to Colombo. MP Jayathissa also questioned as to why the politicians fall sick in this manner.

At this stage, the minister said that if those politicians were granted bail they would join the walk.

Minister Ratnayaka who stated that he had nothing to do with the prison inmates said that this government’s stance on drugs is obvious by the seizure of the haul of Cocaine. “A haul of Cocaine of 200 kg was seized yesterday too. It is valued at around Rs. 4,000 million,” the minister said.